1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a system that utilizes human searchers to perform searches for users in real-time to provide highly relevant results from a broad base of knowledge which includes the “Deep Web”, herein defined as that part of the web's vast amount of information that is still not commonly indexed by current search engines. Using this unique invention, users have access to a vast body of information or knowledge, from anywhere at anytime, offered in a way that makes it easy to find desired information quickly. The system may be accessed via text- or speech-based devices such as desktop computers, laptops, cell phones, telephones, and personal digital assistants. The user and searcher may communicate directly during the search process in order to provide much better results to the query. Searchers are motivated to participate because they may be compensated for providing timely and relevant results.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the current search environment a user can access a search engine, such as Google™ and perform a search. However, many users struggle with formulating a set of keywords that will result in the search engine obtaining useful results. (The term “keyword” includes one or more keywords and keyphrases that can include multiple keywords as well as natural language sentences that can be analyzed to extract keywords and keyphrases). Also, while there are already more web pages indexed than the world's population, it is estimated that less than 1% of all information is indexed by any given search engine.
Current search engines are very difficult to use on devices such as cellular telephones (cellphones) because the top search results are often not relevant to what the user really desires to know, forcing the user to look through a long set of listing results or to repeat queries in order to get more relevant results. Cellphone users are sometimes frustrated by the limited display capability and awkward input methods of cellphones, which further complicates the search function when using a cellphone.
Attempts have been made to have humans answer users' questions via a variety of mechanisms including via email, via information posted at websites, and via library reference desks that are connected to users via “chat” sessions. However, there are many limitations imposed by these and other offerings including having limited pools of “experts”, having latency in delivering results, having helpers who are not sufficiently knowledgeable to provide optimal results, etc.
There are many advertising-based models on the web that have been tried with “search” applications, including ones that “target” the user by mapping advertisements to keywords based on keywords in a user's query.
What is needed is a widely accessible system that allows information seekers to find highly relevant information from a broad base of knowledge, offered in a way that one can find what one wants easily and quickly, from anywhere at anytime. Also needed is a business process that enables such a system to be sustainable.